


roadtrip munchies

by bonehandledknife (ladywinter)



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies), Mad Max: Fury Road
Genre: EXCEPT NO SOLAR OVENS, Gen, Good Lord, How Do I Tag, Hunting, it's not like they're not matter of fact about it tho, pit latrine, serious question though, should I even fucking warn for that, should I warn for bugs and lizards?, solar ovens, wasteland hunting, wasteland survival culture, what are these tags, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-04-04 11:13:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4135335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladywinter/pseuds/bonehandledknife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set in the time after the swamp and before meeting the Vuvalini.</p><p>—</p><p>“Shhhh!” Nux pressed his finger to his mouth and looked at Toast wide-eyed, catching sight of the others walking towards them with leaf things and mother’s milk. “Getting War Fuel. Don’t move fast, you’ll scare ‘em away.”</p><p>“War Fuel?” Cheedo pipped up, blinking up at the Dag.</p><p>“Guzzoline for the body,” the blond replied, skitching fingers through the air, “running fast across the sand, making you run fast too.” She folded down behind where Furiosa kneeled, a hunchbacked curve, watching where the Imperator watched, “they feed on the Buzz.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	roadtrip munchies

“The drums in the sand like water at noon,” The Dag murmured sleepily and hooked her chin crooked on corner of the rear window’s edge.

 

Furiosa looked in the rearview. There was no sign of their pursuers ever since the mud, not even the smudge of their mirage on the horizon. A quick assessment told her that both lower back and shoulders could use a stretch or five and that dust has started clawing up her insides;  _people run hot and real thirsty too_ , she reminded herself and slowed down the War Rig.

The fool sent a questioning noise in her direction. 

She returned him a brief glance and looked at the War Boy, “How are your rations holding up?”

Each War Boy learns eventually to tuck away what protein they can for raids, kept in small pouches flat against the belt or in a pocket. If they ever get knocked off their war machine, they might eventually make it back to the Citadel or be picked up by scouts and avoid a mediocre death. But some stretches of the road are more lifeless than others, and the rations have helped many a War Boy find his or her way home.

“Not bad, Imperator, them crawlies come by the Mechanic’s fair often and—” the War Boy’s eyes grow tight and skittery.

_And the end of his half-life coming up on him meant he’d spent most of his time there_ , Furiosa finished for him mentally. But probably a good call to hold tight to those rations even now. The habits of a decade are hard to shake, Furiosa can’t even think of digging into her own stock without good reason.

“Besides,” Nux perked up, “It’s not like there isn’t shinier fuel here! The— what did you call it?” 

Capable smiled at his eager look, “Mustard greens.”

“Mustard! Right! And more mother’s milk than I’ve ever seen…” there was an uncertain note in his voice, appeasing and careful.  And when Furiosa looked at the fool, he’d simply shrugged and nodded like he, too, knew how to make do if needed.  The greens were good food, she thought, but insubstantial and incomplete of everything the battle took out of them. In the Green Place, they didn't just have greens, but oranges and reds and yellows and purples, but even then they supplemented their diet.

“We need to hunt then,” she edged the rig to a stop.

“What?” Toast whipped her head over finally, “Our stores’re still high. We shouldn’t have a problem for a month with the produce you’re supposed to have traded with Gastown.”

Furiosa shook her head and started getting off the War Rig with crossbow in hand. The fool got off the other side with a soft  _whuff_ of landing.

“And what do you mean by  _rations_?” Toast called after Nux who was scrambling out with a huge beaming grin.

“War Fuel!” he called back as he went over to where Furiosa and the feral were scanning the area. 

“There,” he’d grunted and nodded towards the leeward side of a crescent dune. Seemed like a likely place.

“Should we, ah, let the wives go first?” Nux asked. It usually goes by rank, but...

“They’ve never been out of the Citadel,” Furiosa replied, “or they’ve been traded from the other towns.”

“Is that why they’ve been wasting their leavings?” Nux’s forehead was furrowed. The fool, for once looking the less confused, was darting his eyes from Nux to the women exiting the Rig and to Furiosa’s flat expression with an air of wryness. She wondered what sorts of women he’d known.

“They’ve never hunted,” she replied as she walked towards the slightly shadowed curve of sand. The two men followed and averted their eyes politely, scanning the area, as she dropped her pants and emptied herself in a small pit she’d toed open. Even the sand she cleaned her hand with was carefully deposited back into the pit.

“All yours,” Furiosa murmured when done and took lookout while first one and then the other of the men’s pants were down. The flabbergasted expressions of the wives as they looked on was a bit of amusement she hadn’t quite expected.

“Imperator,” Nux asked quietly as he rose and they walked a little distance off, “I’ve never been all that handy was a lance—”

“I’m on crossbow,” Furiosa shook her head, “You can spot.” She turned to the fool, “Do you need anything?”

“Feet are quick,” the man hummed, and Furiosa accepted that the feral would have developed the skills to survive out in the Wasteland and stay so strong. “Gonna get closer though.” 

The fool separated from them and walked closer to one arm of the crescent and Furiosa approved, switching her coverage to the other arm. She went down on one knee for shot stability. Nux was behind her, still spotting.

“What are you doing?” Toast asked loudly. Furiosa spared a glance backwards but kept most of her attention on the pit latrine. The beetles were starting to come out an investigate.

“Shhhh!” Nux pressed his finger to his mouth and looked at Toast wide-eyed, catching sight of the others walking towards them with leaf things and mother’s milk. “Getting War Fuel. Don’t move fast, you’ll scare ‘em away.”

“War Fuel?” Cheedo pipped up, blinking up at the Dag.

“Guzzoline for the body,” the blond replied, skitching fingers through the air, “running fast across the sand, making you run fast too.” She folded down behind where Furiosa kneeled, a hunchbacked curve, watching where the Imperator watched, “they feed on the Buzz.”

“Those are great too though, and stores better,” Nux removed his pouch and opens it up carefully, “You were asking about these right? My rations?” Toast nodded and looked in. She immediately flinched back. Capable’s eye narrowed and she looked in too, and then carefully pressed her mouth together again a small sound, eyes wide.

“Those are  _bugs_.”

“Buzz is great for the body, yeah,” Nux nodded. “But it’s nothing like—”

“Shh,” Furiosa hummed as she lined up her shot and slammed the bolt through lizardskull. There was a quick movement to her left and the fool rose with a squirming mass in his hand. He returned to stillness and Furiosa pulled her gaze back to her end of the dune, finished with reloading the bow.

“Top left on the ridge.” Nux said.

_Two_ , she mentally counted as she hit that one too. And _three_ , when another one unburied itself from the cool sand, it was a big one, two hands long, and she’d had to use two bolts on it in the end, for one head and then for the upper spinal split where there'd grown two more. That one is going to be a pain to debone.

She glanced at the feral and he looked to have his hands full, two in each grip, and making his way over, so she nodded at Nux who tore out and fetched her kills.

“This way,” she told the fool and lead him over to where the step leading up to the driver's side would provide a good surface. Furiosa hauled herself into the cabin to grab a knife and dusted the step off after. The wives were following at a distance with a slightly appalled air.

Furiosa looked at them for a bit and decided to make a concession. “The water bucket,” she asked, “and the lettuce.”

The buckets were given to her with questions she ignored as she poured a small dash against the step. She swept the slurry off with her hand and turned to the fool. “The ones with the thicker coverings will need to be skinned.”

“I have good digestion,” he eyed her.

Furiosa glanced meaningfully at one of the lizards he’d caught. It looked like it had small shells in place of scales.

“And good teeth.”  

“Still, pass them over first,” she said before really thinking about it, and it was only as she was stabbing the second one through the neck to stop the thrashing that she’d registered how easily the feral had given over his catch. His food.  _Huh_.

Furiosa glanced up but he only looked back at her easily and without demand.

By this time, Nux had returned with her lizards in hand, dusting them off. She dunked the four she'd snapped in the water and gestured at Nux to do the same.

“How are you even going to  _cook_  them?” Cheedo asked.

Furiosa just grabbed two large leaves, then started disemboweling the lizards into the green cups. The organ meat steamed.

“Cook?” Nux asked. Furiosa kept her gaze on her task. She was not going to be the one who says it and from his awkward shifting at her elbow, the fool wasn’t either.

“There’s [not enough mirrors here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyXsYkumHcw).” Toast pointed out.

“Mirrors?”

“That’s how you cook,” Capable explained, “Most food don’t require it but for meat—”

“Here.” Furiosa interrupted, finished with dividing up the nutritious innards and folding one of the leaves carefully around it. She handed it to the fool, “You need your strength.” She knew what the Citadel caught ferals for, but has no idea how much blood they took from him before he was strapped to that car. She needed him strong. She didn’t know how long this trip will take.

The fool took the leaf from her carefully, eyeing her, then looked down at his hand as the leaf unfurled, bloody in his palm. The wives are open mouthed.

Furiosa handed the other leaf to Nux, this half-life boy that she’d ordered thrown off her War Rig, like the men she’d commanded. He will need his strength too. Furiosa carefully didn’t think of the War Boys he reminded her of; carefully didn’t think if, given the choice, given the opportunity, given the  _trust_ , she might have kept those she commanded at her side instead of given to the sandstorm.

There was a nudge at her elbow. Furiosa looked over.

The fool’s hand was held out to her and his forehead was furrowed. In his palm was one of the disemboweled lizards, one with softer skin, and it looked like livers and kidneys had been picked out and placed in its gut. He nudged it at her again and she took the offering. He’d kept most of the organ meat, but he gave her the best. 

Furiosa didn’t know what to make of that. 

His eyes shifted away from her as he carefully bit into his re-folded pouch of green and red, catching at the pieces that tried to escape. Furiosa hummed and popped one of the small livers into her mouth, chewing it carefully, looking over at where his eyes landed. 

The wives were a bit pale. Nux was offering his leaf to them, and gesturing at the lizards, but they were backing away.

Furiosa exchanged a glance with the fool and then they eyed the day’s catch. 

_More for us then_.

She shrugged and bit into the tail.

**Author's Note:**

> \- Bugs will survive the apocalypse, and so will things that can eat them. If you think survivalist Furiosa don't eat them, I'm sorry but you're wrong. Also, crickets are sweet.  
> \- The Mirrors I was referring to are solar ovens, which you can make out of 5 angled flat mirrors, or a single parabolic mirror.  
> \- I'm pretty sure the only thing they might burn for fire in the Wasteland is human refuse, but first, that takes awhile, and second, has better application as fertilizer.  
> \- No seriously, they're not going to burn plastic, rubber, or cloth, where would they get fire from?  
> \- And it takes FOREVER to even fry an egg via sunshine if you don't have focused sunlight via mirrors to help.
> 
> There's more worldbuilding discussion on the matter of food, water, and waste [here](http://bonehandledknife.tumblr.com/post/121493840600/roadtrip-munchies) and [here](http://ooksaidthelibrarian.tumblr.com/post/121497792988/roadtrip-munchies).


End file.
